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two other sisters . The three were kept at work in making lace for fourteen hours a day throughout the last fifteen or sixteen months ; they were fed on barley or oatmeal gruel for breakfast and dinner , with a piece of scalded bread , about the size of their own pigmyhands , for supper . This last was denied if they did not finish their task of fire feefc of his
lace in the day . Samuel and Susannah wife sat in the "back room , and Elizabeth their daughter shared the comfort of that parlour with them . Those who had less to do , more food , and more free motion , had a fire to warm themselves ; the three lacemakers in the front room , kept constantly over the lace pillow , starved to the verge of death , were denied any fire .
Surely John Bitnyan never composed an allegory more exact than this . " What is Samuel Bakbatt , but the monarch ; Susannah , who had the control of the household , but the Executive ; and Elizabeth , who enjoyed the favours of the powers that be , the middle class ; while the three sisters are the working class , —the class that produces the wealth and has none of the returns , —just enough to keep body and soul together , or less than enough ? There was some " demand" for lace , and the lace of course was valuable ; there was very little " demand " for Helen , Charlotte , or Julia Barratt
— creatures with the minds of women , sharp , wrought to a fine edge with industry and hunger , but the bodies of children . Stern want indeed had worked out the allegory as if it were a tragic poem . There is not a more piteous story in Dante ' s Sell or Purgatory . The working class of the Babratt community pined away . Helen , the eldest , became subject to fainting-fits ; her fingers , contracting , refused to work ; and for her incapacity , she was sent to bed supperless . She prayed for food . " Bread ! " cried the women of Paris when they went to IJouis XVI . — " bread ! " The executive—that is the mother
—flogged Heldn with the first instrument she could lay her hands upon , and told her that that was lier supper . The entente was thus put down . If Helen cried for food , her mother " got up and cuffed her , "—the regular mode of preserving domestic tranquillity . Susannah , the executive , no doubt made a report to the monarch Samuel , that his dominions presented in all quarters a tranquil state ; and could equally report to him also , both from the returns of produce and the revenue returns , that the state enjoyed , that condition of prosperity which it had exhibited during several successive quarters .
Being reduced by this kind of government to submit , Helen sang a hymn , and prayed , finishing with the words " Oh ! Lord Jesus help me to do my work next week ! " la not this exactly what pious moralists telL the working classes they should do ? Accept what is given to them , stick to their work while life is in them , and if they arc conscious
of any falling , pray that they may have strength to do their work next day . If indeed they say that they liave not food enough , it is explained to them that the reason arises from the relations of supply and demand ; aud they are told patiently to be contented with the lot to which Providence lias appointed them , thanking Heaven it is no worse .
At last indeed , with this kind of rule , grim death entered tho house , and the govern mont was called to account by a higher power . Even in tho defence the allegory is completely borne out . Susannah , the executive , declared that tho children " told lies and were idle . " The stinted and starved condition of tho unhappy wretches did not prevent that anthoritativo mode of accounting for the situation . " Overwork , insufficient food and exercise , cruelty , and excitement of
the brain—those were the mortal causes . The very physiology of a mob in hard times . But what right had the working classes of the Barbatt world to rise against the constituted authority ? They said their food was not enough : now was ndt this manifestly a lie , when Susannah , the executive , gave them the constituted stint ? If they wanted more , was it anything but lack of will which prevented them from , making more lace , and thus earning more money ? The defence of the father was , that he gave all his earning s to his wife , and knew nothing of the ill treatment of his children . He claimed the
irresponsibility of the monarch ; his wife was the responsible government—responsible apparently to Elizabeth , the middle daughter , who stood between the government and the working-classes : Elizabeth , who enjoyed the comfort of the parlour , was quite satisfied with the state of society , discountenancing all subversive theories .
The jury found the prisoners guilty , and they were sentenced , the women to four years ' penal servitude , the father to one years' imprisonment . What for ? It is true that the executive of the Barbatt community used coercion to make the daughters work , beat them when they were idle , and starved them ; but is this really different from the mode in which
the working classes are treated by the constituted powers ? If the working man will not work , is there not coercion for him ? If he is destitute , is it not an offence under the Poor-laws ? If he finds that his payment is not enough , and rebels , does he not subject himself to severe penalty ? The Union , the House of Correction , the Treadmill , —these are the instruments with which whole classes are flagellated—instrutnents which are sometimes used in act , and are always in terror an ?
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SPANISH POLITICS . The political agitation of Spain is by some attributed to foreign intrigues , by some to a revolutionary leaven working through the mass of the population . It is impossible to deny that since the Duke of "Wellington ' s campaigns the Spanish kingdom has been so sedulously cared for by contemporary governments , that repeated interventions have destroyed , for a time , the self-reliance of the people . Amid the maze of Spanish politics it is difficult to fix upon any man or idea that may be described as representing the
positive tendencies of the nation ; but , between French and British sympathy , Moderado reaction , Progressista activity , the intrigues of the Palace , the excesses of the Church , the conflict of Orleanist and Bonaparte pretensions , the country has been reduced to a state of helpless uncertainty . The only national force that appears to be in action is the qualified political and socialist propagand spreading through Aragon , Catalonia , Estramadura , New and Old Castile , Valencia , and Andalusia , and operating to some extent in the Biscayau and Galician provinces . This seems the radical cause of the numerous
insurrections that have recently broken out , not in tho garrison towns only , but in populous rural districts . But Spain abounds in adventurers—who arc , for the most part , military men or financiers—tho military class preponderating—some of whom fight only for favour at tho palace , while others arc careless of Camarilla influences while they
preserve tho suffrages of the army . Of this stamp is O'Donnell , who aim . s , it would seem , at a mimicry of Napoleonic usurpation . Tho general result , however , is , that Spain , with a constitution by no means tho worst in Europe , with a splendid soil , with a remarkably commodious coast-line , with a natural lino of demarcation dividing it from the reat of the continent / with au abundance of rnro
natural productions and large and valuable colonies , is exposed to continual interference on the part of foreign powers , is distracted by miserable factions , decays in commercial and industrial prosperity , has scarcely a political existence with respect to the external affairs of Europe , and is in a chronic state of fruitless revolution .
Yet Spain has enjoyed a remarkable share of English " good offices . " When , in 1823 , a French army crossed the frontier , and suppressed tlie young constitutionalism of the State , it was loudly proclaimed by 3 V £ r . Canning-, and , as an inevitable corollary , by Iiord Palmebston , that Great Britain would favour the constitutionalism of the
Continent . But how ? By remaining neutral ! These were Lord Palmebston ' s remarkable words , which , at the present moment , may be applied to Spain , and to other countries as well . " We had two causea from which , to choose : neutrality , or war in conjunction with Spain ; but , whichever we determined to adopt , it became us to adopt it decidedly , and adhere to it consistently . Some , indeed , have proposed a middle course , and , strange to say , would have had
us use threats in negotiation , without being prepared to go to war if negotiation failed . To have talked of war and to have meant neutrality ; to have threatened an army , and to have retreated behind a state paper ; to have brandished the sword of defiance in the hour of deliberation , and to have ended with a penful of protests on the day of battle , would hare been the conduct of a cowardly
bully , and would have made us the object of contempt , and the laughing-stock of Europe . " If statesmen could be fixed to their words , there would have been some value in a declaration like this ; but the English Government meddled in Spain as it has meddled in Italy , just enough to discourage national movements , and not enough to prevent foreign interference .
When he actively interfered years afterwards in Spain , it was in pursuance of his opinion that English subjects were associated with the cause of the Queen and of the constitutional party ; yet , has the throne been free , or the constitution safe ? Is not Spain in the hands of soldiers , who suppress her intermittent insurrections by the unsparing use of the musket and the gallows ? What is the action of our Ministers now , when Bonapartism , which has been called the new religion of Europe , corrupts the Spanish leaders , when miserable Orleanist plots still revolve around the throne , when the
Queen and her unhappy Consort are alternately the objects of disgust and pity , and when the provincial governors , shutting themselves up with their garrisons , threaten to reproduce throughout Spain a picture of feudal fear , violence , and barbarity ? At the head of all , triumphing over tho insurrection ho provoked , stands Marshal O'Donnell . It will be necessary for the comprehension of the present aspects of Spain—the paradox of Europe—lightly to retrace the last eleven years of her political history , and to draw a sketch of her loading men and parties .
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FEDERAL UNION OF TRADES . We have said that a federal organisation of the Trados Unions throug hout tho three Kingdoms would place industry in its natural position , and confer on tho working classes a social equality with their employers . The Trades of Scotland have at last recognized tho valuo of this suggestion , which our vigorous contemporaries in Glasgow — the Sentinel and tho Commonwealth—have cordially recommended to the attention of the industrious orders . Tho ono thing unintelligible is , that though this idea has boon re-
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JrLY 19 , 1866 . 1 THE LEADER . 685
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 19, 1856, page 685, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2150/page/13/
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